


A Garden Dream

by Scattyuk



Category: Flowers in the Attic - V. C. Andrews, V. C. Andrews - works
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26410825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scattyuk/pseuds/Scattyuk
Summary: “Why don’t you and Jory come with me?” His eyes were very bright and lambent. “Carrie can stay to keep Paul company. It’ll be nine months - just you and me and Jory in our own place.”And I knew I should say no, but that need, that all-encompassing need I had always had for him won out and somehow the word yes spilled from my lips.
Relationships: Cathy Dollanganger/Chris Dollanganger
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	A Garden Dream

One summer twilight we stood in the garden and Chris told me he’d been offered a fellowship at the Mayo clinic in another state. “Why don’t you and Jory come with me?” His eyes were very bright and lambent. “Carrie can stay to keep Paul company. It’ll be nine months - just you and me and Jory in our own place.”

And I knew I should say no, but that need, that all-encompassing need I had always had for him won out and somehow the word yes spilled from my lips. 

“You can’t be serious,” Paul said later. “Catherine, this is unhealthy. You know that. You should be telling him to move on, not-“

“You don’t understand,” I told him. 

“No, perhaps I don’t. I thought you understood that no matter what you might feel, it would be wrong to act on those feelings. I thought you’d put that behind you. I thought you loved me.”

“I do,” I said. “But not enough.”

“I’ll be fine,” Carrie said. “Paul will take me out for movies again. It’ll be like when you lived in New York.” But her wistful eyes slid away. 

“What’s wrong, Carrie? Did you want to come too?”

“No,” she said quietly. “Or at least, I don’t think you really want me to. I think you want to be alone with Chris for a while. And I don’t want to be the odd one out.”

I tried to protest but she shook her head. “I’m grown up now Cathy. You can stop pretending any of us is normal. You don’t need my approval.”

Somehow we waited through those three weeks of planning and packing. Now and then I wondered if I was abandoning my long-brewed plans for revenge or just delaying them. But then I would see Chris smiling, and a kind of happiness I had long forgotten would fill my heart and the thought would vanish. And still we waited, until we arrived in Minnesota, and Jory fell asleep on Chris’ lap that first night and we laid him gently in his cot together, and then Chris took my hand and led me into our room. And he showed me what I’d always known: that next time it would be a kind of magic only we could conjure.

But still, nothing was more magical than that moment we stood surrounded by roses and yes spilled from my lips instead of no, and he kissed me, and I kissed him back.

And as the thought settled in my mind, my eyes opened on a gasp, the sharp mountain breeze rousing me as it cut through the drapes. Bart stirred at my side. “Cathy?” He asked. “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

“It’s nothing,” I told him. “Just a sad dream.” Just a dream it hurt to wake from.

**Author's Note:**

> One of my long running what-ifs is how the story would have changed if Cathy had agreed to go with Chris during his time at the Mayo. This dropped into my head on the train. The dream fake-out is cliche of course, but I do like to keep things canon compliant!


End file.
